An Appropriate souvenir

We decided to have fish and chips for lunch. I went along to pick it up, even though it was raining. I grabbed my shopping bag to bring it back. Bringing your own bag doesn’t seem to be a thing here. Everyone seems to just get plastic bags when they check out; I do often see people carry things without a bag if it is only a few items. We went in the convenience store we haven’t yet been to to get ketchup. They don’t have tartar sauce at the fish place and just eating fish and chips plain is not our jam. We also looked for Jaffa cakes, because Mike Pearson said they are great. No Jaffa cakes, but as we checked out with our ketchup I noticed cherry Coke tic tacs. I grabbed four. You can’t get them in the US anymore and I really like them. The check out lady thought I was really funny. She asked what we were doing in Treorchy. (So much for my initial wondering if Americans roaming around town was unusual. I believe it is fairly rare.) She will really think it is funny when I go back and buy all the rest of their tic tacs. We went to the other convenience store and scored Jaffa cakes. (Turns out I didn’t much care for them. They are cookie looking little cakes with chocolate on top. No worries, Keith thought they were just fine. They will not go to waste.) As we passed the butcher, I suggested we grab something for dinner, instead of our planned grilled cheese (since we had that yesterday). Since there IS a butcher, who offers lovely little pastry items it seems we should have them while we can. We got two minced beef and onion pies. Only two customers are allowed in at a time, so I waited under my umbrella. Then I walked on to window shop. I had seen some curious umbrellas in a window yesterday and hadn’t stopped to investigate. I stood outside, looking at the umbrella. I walked to the next window and looked. I walked back. I considered going in to ask, but thought Keith would appear as soon as I disappeared, so I just kept looking, trying to make sense of it. It looked like an umbrella, but the handle came out the top. Or something. It did not make sense. Keith showed up just as the lady inside got tired of me lurking outside her store and came to invite me in. (She listened to us for about two seconds and said what are you doing in Treorchy? Seems our presence somewhere else might make sense, but not in Treorchy.) She demonstrated the umbrella and Keith said, “We’ll take it.” She took us back to show us other patterns, but that was the one. She rang it up for £16.99 and Keith gave her a £20 note. She checked her till and asked if we could come closer because she didn’t have change. Keith got out all the coins in his pocket, clinked them around, and said no, he couldn’t. She said toss it down and we’ll see. She quickly added it up (because she doesn’t have to stop, hold up each coin, squint to see what it says its value is, etc) and said it’s £13.56, that will be fine. Keith couldn’t short her and tried to give her the £20 again (demonstrating that it isn’t only me that he can’t hear)(oh, I stand corrected. I only thought he couldn’t hear her. He has explained now that he read this that he was more interested in overpaying than underpaying. It is only me he can’t hear.) I brilliantly jumped in and said we were going to get lunch and we could come back with better money. I tried to leave the umbrella, but she said she knew we would be back. As we went on to the fish shop, I mentioned we could just have credit carded it. I knew Keith was trying to use up cash that he had, but I hadn’t thought that given the circumstances that it would have been easier to charge it. He agreed – he had never thought of it. (We seem to have lost some ability to think.) At Treorci Fish, I again stood outside under my umbrella, because only two in the shop at a time (rules like this are still being followed, but no one wore a mask at the concert Tuesday night. We wear our masks when we shop, as do some others, but didn’t on Tuesday night, because, well, because we were lazy and caved to doing what everyone else is doing). As I was waiting, several people asked if I was waiting (to go in) and I cleverly responded no, I’m just waiting (obviously I’m waiting for something. I am standing in the rain) …for my husband. Sounded like a fool every time, but seemed to not have the brain power to come up with a better response for the next time someone asked. Fish in bag, we went back and paid for our umbrella and then enjoyed our lunch.

I also noticed that I missed an audiologist and a decorator (paint/wallpaper/etc) while tracking everything yesterday.

You really want a picture of the upside down umbrella, don’t you? It is soooooo cool.